


Arthur and Oliver

by A_Random_Cloud



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: I'm Bad At Titles, M/M, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-02 10:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17262407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Random_Cloud/pseuds/A_Random_Cloud
Summary: Something that I did for aph-mirror-week on Tumblr. Putting them here as well.Please note: Oliver (2p!England) is not a psychopath in this writing, or else I would never had posted this on Tumblr in the first place.Would have differences from the original posts I posted on Tumblr.Short drabbles of Arthur and Oliver.Relationship could be either viewed as platonic or romantic.





	1. First Meeting

Arthur has always cared for King George III, even though never showing it, as with the many rulers of England before him. So when he summoned Arthur to see him after a tiring visit at America’s home, he did so without complaint. But he never thought of the possibility of seeing a child, who was a mirror image of him, except the blue eyes which was the shade of the deep seawaters and the hair that was such a light red that it almost looked pink. The child clung to the king’s robes, unwilling to speak with Arthur.

As if hearing Arthur’s silent question, the proud king related the events leading to the child’s birth, expressing his wish for Arthur to name the child, since he will be following Arthur’s footsteps.

He knelt down, studying the child closer and saw his reflection staring back at him, with distrust in his eyes. Arthur simply closed his eyes, avoiding the child’s gaze.

He stood up, facing the King, and spoke, the words uttered light but giving the child an evidence of his existence.

“His name shall be Oliver, Oliver Kirkland.”


	2. Jealousy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the title suggests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jealousy (Day 3 Prompt)

Things remained the same for Arthur after his meeting with Oliver. He still visited America from time to time, even though he always returns feeling a bit crestfallen after seeing how quick America’s growth speed was.

  
That wasn’t the end of Arthur’s chores. After making sure that America was fine, he had to also take care of Canada, who were staying with him. That is why he paid more attention to Canada compared to America, which makes it natural for Arthur to know all of Canada’s habits, one of them being the fact that Canada prefers to be called Matthew, instead of his country name. The other Canada preferred to be called Steve, but they both expressed a great liking for Arthur.  
Although Arthur knew what were the habits of America, Matthew and Steve, he never really paid attention to his mirror image, Oliver, who was supposed to be the country closest to him.

  
Oliver knew, however, all of Arthur’s habits. He would regard Arthur from a distance, copying his movements, memorising them and then he took his time acquiring his own hobbies based on Arthur's ones. He felt proud of knowing Arthur’s habits, but there was always something in him that felt…wrong.

  
He would silently watch on as Arthur leaves to visit America and then spend his time, alone, in the palace, admiring the artworks from people preceeding his time. He burrows himself into the world of art, detached from reality.  
He would stand quietly, holding a book, as he watches Arthur gently smiling at Matthew and Steve. He clutches on his book harder.

  
The feelings hit him, thudded against his heart and stirred up a thunderstorm in his head. He fell to his knees, curling up. Tears sprang up his eyes. He couldn’t understand his feelings. Was it a yearning for Arthur glance at him? Was it a yearning for Arthur to summon him? Or was it a yearning for Arthur to smile at him and call him by the name, the name that Arthur gifted him?

  
He curled up into a tighter ball. He couldn’t understand. He couldn’t. He couldn’t.


	3. Shared Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver sees Arthur after the American Revolutionary War.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shared Memory (Day 4 Prompt)

Oliver didn’t really have any shared memories with Arthur when he was younger due to the lateness of his birth. Although he does have one memory with Arthur that he hated yet cherished at the same time.

  
It was a rainy day, as usual. He continued to read Shakespeare’s plays, one of his favourite ways to make time pass quicker. Both Matthew and Steve have gone out with Arthur, claiming that they ‘will be back soon.’ But he knew by experience that they would take a lot more time to return. He sank further into his seat, concentrating on the words alongside the ‘pitter-patter’ of the rain and the ‘tick-tock’ of the antique clock.

  
Unexpectedly, the heavily-decorated doors burst open, causing Oliver to drop his book by surprise. He raised his head to protest but the sight that greeted him silenced any words he wanted to speak.

  
It was Arthur, fully soaked, being held up by Matthew and Steve. His eyes were dead, his uniform ripped and muddy, showing old scars from his pirate days, the days when he claimed America as his little brother.

  
Oliver ignored his fallen book and ran towards Arthur, paying no attention to Matthew and Steve’s muttered curses directed towards America, and flung his arms around Arthur, not caring about the potential reprimanding he would receive.  
The elder nation simply hugged Oliver back and held him by an iron grip, causing Oliver pain. He ignored it, knowing that Arthur’s pain hurt more than his. They embraced for a long time, until Matthew and Steve insisted that it was time for Arthur to rest.

  
And that was Arthur’s and Oliver’s shared memory of their first hug.


	4. Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew, Steve (2p! Canada) and Oliver look after Arthur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonding (Day 5 Prompt)

Arthur fell ill after that rainy day where his lost his brother forever. He lay in bed, delirious and with a temperature. At most times, he would mumble the words he once said to America when he was a child. Occasionally, he would open his eyes and stare at the ceiling, unaware of the presence of anybody else in the room. Sometimes he would toss and turn in his sleep, clutching his sheets, drenched with sweat.

  
Nobody dared to leave Arthur alone in the room. He was a danger to himself. To ensure Arthur’s safety, Matthew, Steve and Oliver stayed at different times next to Arthur’s bed, with at least one of them present.

  
Matthew usually stays throughout the day, with Steve accompanying him. At mealtimes, they would carefully feed Arthur with food chopped up as small a possible. Matthew would be the one feeding Arthur while Steve would prop him in a comfortable position. They take turns in putting a towel soaked in freezing water on Arthur’s forehead to keep his temperature down. After this, they would continue to guard over Arthur, hoping that he would talk to them in his wakening moments.

  
Oliver would stay next to Arthur at night, holding Arthur’s hands in his. He would prepare a bucket of cold water next to him and would mop Arthur’s forehead gently with a towel that he dipped in the cold water from time to time.

  
Rarely, Arthur would wake up suddenly in his troubled sleep and grasp anything near him in a blind panic. At those times, Oliver would hum a peaceful lullaby, soon sending Arthur back in his land of slumber.

  
It took a few months to nurse Arthur to a stable condition, even under their special care. A few days after that, Arthur woke up.

  
In was coincidental that he woke up at night. Oliver, after months of sleepless nights, was in a deep slumber. His head rested on Arthur’s bed, his light red hair spreading itself out, catching the moonlight that poured through the window, which gave it a strange gleam in the darkness. His chest rose and fell in a peaceful rhythm. His hands, however, still held on to Arthur’s.

  
Arthur smiled and kept his hands in Oliver’s, lest he disturbed him from his sleep. Oliver needed it, he knew. He turned to the window and saw the silent landscape greeting him. He looked at the silvery moon outside. It is still a long time to morning.   
Arthur felt a bit drowsy. He took his eyes off the moon and gazed back at Oliver. He embraced his drowsiness, deciding to take more notice in him and say a thank you to those who looked after him during his weak time. But that was something to do tomorrow.

He swore silently to himself to cut any remaining emotions with America and treat him as any country. Not as a brother, no. His brother has succumbed to the waves of the past, leaving a stranger in his place.

  
Arthur could not. He still had others to protect. He continued to gaze at Oliver before the welcoming darkness swallowed him up.


	5. Opposites

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do such different people get along together?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Opposites (Day 2 Prompt)

Time flies to the present. Arthur has grown into a gentleman, or so he says. He never lost his traits developed back then he was a pirate or the British Empire, at the peak of his power. He merely learnt how to conceal them from public view. He hid them so well that many never got to know the wild beast hidden under the coverage.

Oliver has grown from a young child barely taller than Arthur's knees into a lively young man with the same height as Arthur. He also grown out of his childish actions of copying Arthur's actions and started to act differently from him, even though they shared the same interests. But that was left unobserved by the outsiders. 

People occasionally ask how do they get along together. Sometimes it is Arthur they ask, sometimes it is Oliver they ask. The question has been asked by many different people throughout the decades, so much that Arthur and Oliver have developed their own ways to answer this question.

  
Arthur will hold direct eye contact to the questioner while gently sipping his tea as he answers.

  
“Opposites attract,” he will say calmly, as if stating the obvious. And he continues to do his chores as though nothing happened, not making an effort to explain more to the questioner.

  
Oliver will just smile and tell the story when he received his name as he gently kneads the dough under his hands, treating it like it has a life of its own.

  
The questioners would leave as baffled as before, while Arthur and Oliver silently laugh at their shared joke.


	6. Advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What should we do do to improve their cooking!!!! (Many countries' internal screaming)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Advice (Day 6 Prompt)

Although Arthur and Oliver are so different from each other (from an outsider's view) they have one thing in common. And that is their cooking, which is the most noticeable similarity between them.

  
They would be able to make remarkable desserts, which are described by Italy (Feliciano, Luciano, Rovino and Flávio) as ‘heaven on Earth’, but at the same time, they are able to destroy the kitchen, even by boiling pasta. Wait. That is an over-exaggeration. The kitchen can't live for that long. It actually only survives to the point when either Oliver or Arthur decides to turn on the gas. Then all hell breaks loose. It is surprising that they manage to leave unscathed from the explosion. Here is the most astonishing fact here: they manage to cook in that poor, blackened and smoking kitchen.

The process above goes the same for Austria. But Austria at least makes delicacies. The food they would bring out would even let the calmest of all running towards the hills. The food (no, it is not even edible!!!!-internal screams by any country who ate England’s ‘food’) would leave even the most emotionless in tears. Hmm... Apparently this passage reminds Egypt of something...

  
Many countries tried to give advice on how to improve their cooking. Including their Nyotalia counterparts, Alice and Olivia, who both manages to cook foods which were not desserts without demolishing the whole kitchen. Though the flavour is still quite indescribable, it is quite a giant leap of cooking skills compared to Arthur and Oliver.

  
Of course, Arthur and Oliver do try to follow their instructions, however, by some devils’ forces at work, the food still remains the same. But this time, the power of destruction has expanded its range, which causes them to demolish their whole house after following instructions. It gets worse with advice. So no more countries even attempt to give advice to the cooking that came from the fiery pits of hell anymore for fear of the explosion affecting their homes as well.

  
Recipes do the same thing as well. There is also a pattern to the explosions depending on whose recipe they follow. The better at cooking the author is in real life, the worse the explosions get. It seems like they are following Gordon Ramsay's recipe.

The time has come to run for your life.


	7. History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The countries never forget their history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 7 was a free day, so I chose 'History' as my prompt.

Looking back in the past, it always surprises Oliver when he knows what countries go through, even if he is one of them himself.

  
But he is a recent country, unlike Wang Yao, who lived for thousands of years. No, that was too extreme for an example. Oliver shakes his head. Arthur would be more of an appropriate example, since he is his mirror image, after all.

  
Still, Arthur has lived longer than him by a few hundred years. Short for a country, yet long enough for humans. They come and go, while the countries stay on, not even altering their appearance. They are the witnesses of history.

  
He would listen, enthralled, as Arthur recalls the days of Knights, dragons, clashes of roses, Pirates, witchcraft… They came from another era, yet they were told by a witness. A true witness.

  
Oliver himself gets muddled with time, but he remembers everything that he saw. The city of fog. London, the city he knows best, becomes a maze within the swirly, pea-soup. The poor struggling. The cries of the trains. The heaving of the machines. The monstrous beings slumped on beds, smoking opium.

  
Arthur sees these sights with him. They never forget. They remember.

  
Now is the present. The past still clings to their heels, but it is the past. It could not hurt.

  
Life goes on. The countries live on. They are witnesses of the past. They are onlookers of the present.

  
Arthur and Oliver are one and the same. They could not be separated. And they would bring their hands together to look forward to the future, unflinching, as they did so in the past.


End file.
